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This Week in People’s History, Oct 15–21, 2025

Portside
Charlie Chaplin impersonating Adolf Hitler
Chaplin’s Timeless Attack on Dictatorship (1940), U.S. Anti-War Rally Was Record-Big, but Not for Long (1965), Revolutionary Stirrings in Manhattan (1765), Permission to Come Aboard, Who Needs It? (1960), Is the C.I.A. Is a Law Unto Itself? (1975)

MIT Says ‘No’ to Trump Extortion Pact

Jessica Corbett Common Dreams
"This offer looked like an invitation, but it wasn't," said Ariel White, vice president of MIT's American Association of University Professors chapter. "It was a ransom note."

New England Unions Lead the Way on Offshore Wind

Paul Prescod Jacobin
Building trades unions in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are successfully fighting for offshore wind projects that create good union jobs and revitalize the economy. In the process, they’re showing how to defend clean energy from Donald Trump.

The Rift in American Socialism

Harold Meyerson The American Prospect
Realists (Mamdani, AOC) seek immersion in mass politics; fundamentalists oppose it.

It’s Not Government They Don’t Like

Jamelle Bouie New York TImes
Like the slave owners, the MAGA movement and its allies are opposed only to those aspects of government that they can’t wield against their enemies. They will happily enlarge the scope of federal authority beyond the limits of our Constitution.